The New Mexico Supreme Court will decide whether conservative cities and counties can keep their local abortion restrictions in a state that otherwise allows the procedure up to the moment of birth.
The Land of Enchantment’s high court is hearing oral arguments Wednesday in a challenge from state Attorney General Raul Torrez, a Democrat who has argued that the local laws violate New Mexico’s equal rights amendment in the state constitution, which bars discrimination based on sex and being pregnant.
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New Mexico has become a destination for people seeking abortions from neighboring states such as Texas, Utah, Arizona, and Oklahoma, all of which enacted restrictions after the overturn of Roe v. Wade. Abortion rates in the state have more than tripled since last summer, and roughly 75% of cases came from outside New Mexico.
The cities of Hobbs and Clovis, as well as Lea and Roosevelt counties, enacted ordinances using an 1873 federal anti-vice law, the Comstock Act, which prohibits the shipping of anything that can be used to induce abortion. They argue that the ordinances cannot be struck down until federal courts decide the meaning of the Act, which has been narrowed over the years but never repealed.
Those cities and counties are using the law to stop the mailing of abortion-related medical supplies and abortion pills, creating de facto bans in each area.
Since the start of the case, other localities in New Mexico have enacted similar restrictions.
Advocates of the law who do not support abortion, including Right to Life of East Texas director Mark Lee Dickson, see it as a federal entry point for local leaders to set restrictions on abortion even in states with the most permissive abortion laws, such as New Mexico. The state is one of seven in the country that allows terminating pregnancies until the moment of birth.
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Earlier this year, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM) signed a law overriding local restrictions on abortion and one that allows those who provide abortion services to avoid investigations from other states.
The supreme courts of Arizona and Wyoming are hearing abortion restriction cases this week as well.
